This rules! (The Bends - Radiohead)

Name: cmkingcraig2

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Product:	The Bends - Radiohead
Date:	27.11.01 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great music

Disadvantages: none

Radiohead is a rare band in music these days. They push the boundaries of pop music in ways that only groups like Led Zeppelin and the Beatles had done before. I have to admit I've always respected this band. But I also have to admit I never was really into them. Yes, I thought Creep was kind of cool, but I also knew that wasn't at all the best representation of the band. After hearing every critic in the world heap tons of praise on the band's 1997 effort OK Computer, I decided to get it out of the library and give it a shot. I couldn't get into more than one or two songs. I gave that album about another seven or eight tries. And then, this week, I finally listened to the advice of a couple of friends, and I got The Bends out of the library. I popped it into my CD player only a couple of days ago for the first time, and already, I am completely and totally in love with this album.

The album opens with the very atmospheric Planet Telex, and the first two things you literally hear are an electronic wind and a vibrating piano. It's quickly obvious this is not your typical rock band release. To me, this is a song about a past gone awry, and how you can't get rid of your past no matter what you do. Lead vocalist Thom Yorke is passionate in his singing, and with lines like "you can break all the rules but; still everything is broken, everyone is broken, why can't you forget?," it's clear this is not a very happy song.

The band contrasts this nicely with the opening to the next song, the title track. The opening blasts of guitar and drums are made to sound almost inspirational, as if sent from above. Musically, it's much heavier and less textured than Planet Telex, and only two songs into the album it's obvious this is going to be a very diverse record. What makes Radiohead stand out above almost every other band is the changes their songs go through. While there is nothing on this album as equally brilli
ant musically as Paranoid Android from the OK Computer album, this is about the only band that can go from sounding like 1990s post "grunge-era" (god I hate that term, but I can't come up with a better description at the moment) to 1970's rock. And that is what makes listening to Radiohead on this record a truly remarkable experience.

The band follows up the title track with two acoustic ballads, High and Dry and Fake Plastic Trees. I never had really taken a liking to High and Dry while it was being given somewhat heavy airplay on the radio here in Boston a couple of years back. I thought it wasn't a bad song, but Yorke's high pitched whine on the chorus drove me up a wall. After multiple listens over the past few days though, this song has quickly become one of my favorites on the album, even though the high pitched chorus still drives me up a wall. Fake Plastic Trees, meanwhile, is probably my least favorite song on the record. It doesn't do anything for me like the first three songs did, even though the lyrics are written very well. I do like the melody the band came up with, but it's Yorke's vocal delivery that turns me off.

The band heads back into mid-tempo rock on Bones, a song that features a killer bassline thanks to Colin Greenwood, who is one of the few standout bass players in rock today. (Alongside the likes of Flea, Jeff Ament, Joe Gittleman, and Mike Inez) The song is musically uplifting, even if I find the lines "and I used to fly like Peter Pan, all the children flew when I touched their hands" to be the most ridiculous lines I have possibly ever heard.

Nice Dream has the band heading back towards the more mellow end of the spectrum, with a wonderful guitar melody laid out by Jon Greenwood. The build up on the bridge is possibly one of the greatest things my ears have ever heard on this song, and band manages to incorporate some strings as well.

Just is a melodic m
id-tempo rock song that is more melodic and and ringing than just about anything else on the album. Here is where Yorke's voice shines through, and it seems to be a condemnation of a friend who wants to blame everyone but themselves:

you do it to yourself, you do
and that's what really hurts
is you do it to yourself, just you
and no one else,
you do it to yourself

About the only fault I can find in this song is the absolutely cheesy bridge riff that about 50 million other songs have used in the past. To me, those riffs are easily the worst thing about this album.

We then hit the song that both of my friends raved about when telling me about this album, and it's called My Iron Lung. It opens with what sounds like a sitar, but there's only one problem: there's no sitar credit in the liner notes, meaning that that is an electric guitar making those sounds! People want to talk about Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine (who is mostly a one trick pony in my book), but Jon Greenwood blows him away here. My Iron Lung is easily the best song on this record, and also one of the more accessible songs for casual listeners. It's heavy blast of a chorus and somewhat gentle verse will remind more than a few people of Creep in structure, even if they aren't really anything alike in sound.

You then are hit with another ballad, the haunting Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was. It's a very delicate song musically, and the guitars are very spaced and textured sounding. As Bullet Proof fades out, track ten, Black Star slowly fades in, with an intro not unlike that of the title track. This song is another one that just wallows in it's depressive lyrics ("what are we coming to? I just don't know anymore"), but the music is nothing short of wonderful, and if you somehow haven't noticed the excellent yet downplayed drumming of Phil Selway yet, you will here.

The dense and hollow r
inging guitars that open Sulk give this song a perfect atmosphere for it's title. You can literally almost feel Thom Yorke and the rest of the band sulking into a dream-like state on this song, only for them, especially Yorke, to be reawakened on the chorus.

The last song on the record, Street Spirit (Fade Out) is another haunting and lush ballad, with a very simple guitar melody and some beautiful string work.

I was completely shocked by how good this album was. I have listened to it consistently for three days now, and every time I fall in love with it just a little bit more. The only con to this is that I waited so long to give it a shot. If you want what is a very consistent album, and possibly one of the best rock albums my ears have ever had the pleasure of hearing, do yourself a complete and huge favor and pick this up.

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